The Communist Revolution in China

1. The Communist Revolution in China AP World History

2. Review: Collapse of the Imperial System in China • 1911 = End of the last (Qing) dynasty • 1912 = China became the Republic of China • Republic of China ruled from 1912 until 1949 • First president of the Republic of China = Sun Yat-sen

3. Warlords in the 1920s • 1916 – 1928 = China’s central government fractured and various warlords ruled different sections of China • (Like Yuan Shi-kai) China in 1924

4. The Nationalist Party • 1928 = The Nationalist Party gained control of China and reestablished a unified central government • Under the leadership of Chian Kai-shek = a military officer • He led the Nationalist Party until 1949

5. The Nationalist Party • Promoted modern development • Railroads, banking, airline services, etc. • Problem #1: Impacts of these achievements only in the cities  rural areas (where most of the population lived) were still impoverished • Problem #2: Left the Nationalist Party with a limited base of support • Urban elites; rural landlords; Western powers Chiang Kai-shek

6. The Nationalist Party • Constantly faced opposition from the newly developed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) • Founded in 1921 • Grew enormously over the next 28 years • Found a charismatic leader in Mao Zedong Mao Zedong as a young revolutionary

7. The Nationalist Party • 1927 = Nationalist Party chased the CCP out of China’s cities • CCP developed a new strategy = appeal to China’s peasants for support

8. Chinese Communist Party • Slowly gained the respect and support of the peasants by: • Using guerrilla warfare tactics against the Nationalist Party • Experimenting with land reform in areas under communist control • Efforts to empower women • Creation of a communist military force to protect against Nationalist Party attacks Chinese Communist Guerrillas

9. Chinese Communist Party • CCP gained an enormous amount of support during Japan’s brutal invasion of China • Nationalist Party lost control over most of China and was forced to retreat to the interior • Nationalist Party seemed more concerned with eliminating the CCP than fighting Japan Japanese Invasion of China, 1937

10. Chinese Communist Party • CCP, with its communist-led People’s Liberation Army, fought the Japanese vigorously • Offered security to many Chinese faced with Japanese atrocities • CCP membership grew from 40,000 in 1937 to 1.2 million in 1945 The People’s Liberation Army (late-1940s)

11. Chinese Communist Party • The CCP gained even more support by doing the following in areas it controlled: • Reduced rents, taxes, and interest rates for peasants • Taught literacy to adults • Mobilized women for the struggle • Encouraged peasants to fight back against their landlords

12. Chinese Communist Party • In 1949, 4 years after WWII, the CCP swept to victory over the Nationalist Party • Most of the Nationalist Party’s leaders fled to Taiwan • New leader of communist China = Mao Zedong

14. Building Communism in China and the Soviet Union

15. Building Communism • 1st step in building socialism = modernization and industrialization of their “backward societies” • Simultaneously wanted to eliminate inequalities of class and gender, prevent the growth of new inequalities as they modernized, and promote values of selflessness and collectivism • In order to do this, government had to be completely dominated by the Communist Party

16. Building Communism • Communist governments in China and the Soviet Union, therefore, became totalitarian: • Other political parties forbidden • Government controlled almost the entire economy • Government ensured that the arts, education and media conformed to approved ways of thinking • Organizations for women, workers, students, and professional groups operated under party control

17. Communist Feminism • Both communist regimes took steps to liberate and mobilize their women • State-directed women’s initiatives A man and woman working side-by-side as power plant operators in the Soviet Union

18. Communist Feminism in the USSR • As a result of laws and decrees passed by the Soviet Union: • Women were granted full legal and political equality • Divorce was legalized and made easier • Abortions were legalized and made easier • Marriage became a civil procedure among freely consenting adults • Illegitimacy was abolished • Women no longer had to take their husbands’ last names • Pregnancy leave for employed women was mandated • Women were actively mobilized as industrial workers Soviet women reading and studying

19. Communist Feminism in China • The Marriage Law of 1950 in China implemented: • Free choice in marriage • Relatively easy divorce • The end of concubines and child marriages • Permission for widows to remarry • Equal property rights for men and women • Chinese women also became more involved in industrial production

20. Communist Feminism • Problems for women: • Still expected to take care of the children and the housework  now had the double burden of that PLUS paid employment • Women appeared only very rarely in the top political leadership • Communist feminism did not continue and faded within a decade of its beginning in each country

21. Socialism in the Countryside • 1st stage of socialism in the countryside = involved taking over landlords’ estates and redistributing that land equally among the peasants • 2nd stage of socialism in the countryside = collectivization of agriculture • Designed to completely end private property

22. Collectivization in China • Peaceful process  due to the close relationship between the CCP and the peasantry • “Great Leap Forward” in the late-1950s = an effort to mobilize China’s population for rapid development • Created “people’s communes” • Designed to move toward a more fully communist society with more social equality and collective living • Massive famine caused by administrative chaos and bad weather killed 20 million Chinese between 1959 and 1962 Some communes had up to 2,000 households

24. Collectivization in the Soviet Union • Much more violent process  Soviet communists did not have much support in the countryside • Peasants were forced into collective farms • A lot of resistance from the peasants  example: many of them slaughtered and consumed hundreds of thousands of animals because they didn’t want to surrender them to the collectives • Terrible famine ensued  caused about 5 million deaths Victims of the Famine

25. Communism and Industrial Development • China used the same model for industrial development that the Soviet Union had developed decades earlier: • A series of five-year plans = brought all agricultural and industrial production under government control • State ownership of property • Priority = heavy industry • Massive mobilization of the nation’s human and material resources Poster highlighting industrialization in the Soviet Union

26. Pros & Cons of Industrial Development(In both China & the Soviet Union) Pros Cons Rapid urbanization Exploitation of the countryside to provide resources for industries in the cities Growth of a bureaucratic and technological elite class with more privileges • Increased literacy rates • More educational opportunities • More social mobility

27. Responses to these Social Outcomes: Joseph Stalin • Largely accepted these outcomes • Stalin had created a conservative society that had abandoned much of its revolutionary legacy • Commitment to full equality = abandoned • Endorsed: Russian patriotism, traditional family values, individual competition, and differences in wages to stimulate production

28. Responses to these Social Outcomes: Mao Zedong • Did not accept these outcomes  continuously strove to combat these inevitabilities of industrialization • Tried to preserve the “revolutionary spirit” of China • Mid-1960s = launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution • Designed to combat the capitalist elements that had “infiltrated” China

29. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • A campaign against the “Four Olds” = old thoughts, old culture, old habits, and old customs • Message = revolution and rebellion is good • Wanted to put “intellectuals” in their place • Many schools were shut down • Wanted to establish a more equitable society • Brought healthcare, education, and rural industrialization to the countryside

30. The Search for Enemies • Mao Zedong = convinced that many within the Communist Party had been “seduced” by capitalist values • Called for rebellion against Communist Party itself • Red Guards = students and other young people that responded • Red Guards attacked local party and government officials, teachers, intellectuals, factory managers, and others they defined as “enemies” that had embraced capitalism

31. The Search for Enemies • Stalin used secret police to find “enemies” within the Soviet Union and his own Communist Party • Late 1930s = “The Terror” or “The Great Purges”  millions of people were arrested for treason/disloyalty (usually in the dead of night) • Tried and sentenced either to death or to long years in harsh and remote labor camps, known as the “gulag” Workers at a Soviet Labor Camp

32. The Search for Enemies • Stalin had close to 1 million people executed between 1936 and 1941 • About 5 million were sent to the gulag, where they died in appalling numbers • Throughout Stalin’s entire dictatorship, approximately 20 million people died in the Soviet Union

33. 1950 The USSR and China sign a treaty of friendship, USSR gives aid. • 1950-1951 China takes over Tibet. Many including the Dalai Lama flee to India. Resentment grows between India and China.

34. After failure: • Rising dispute and competition with USSR. • Mao reduces his role as leader • Other leaders move away from strict ideas – begin to let families have own homes and private plots for crops -factory workers compete for wages • Mao felt this weakened China and pushes for a revolution

35. 1966 The Cultural Revolution Disrupts Life Revolution’s Goal was: Urge young Chinese to experience revolution first hand -Teenagers formed band of Red Guards. Attacked, beat, or killed anyone considered to be a “counterrevolutionary.” (Carried Red Books with quotes from Mao.) -Failed as skilled workers were forced to do manual labor, schools and factories closed, and civil war was imminent.

36. 1968 Even Mao realized this had to stop. • Army put down Red Guards. • China struggles to stabilize.